Hi! This is my first fanfiction on this website, and I hope you like it!

Disclaimer: No, I don't own the Batman movies, comics, or anything like that. I write strictly for entertainment purposes and am in no way affiliated with DC comics and Time Warner. Any constructive criticism is deeply appreciated, thanks for reading!

Piper Wrenski could hardly describe herself as someone who would up and leave her hometown with her friend in the middle of the summer, for the sake of doing something they were specifically told not to do. Doing this much for a school project wasn't really her thing. She could not really claim that something like this was representative of her character as a whole, but, then again, John Wilkes Booth could not claim that sneaking into theaters and shooting presidents wasn't like him at all. Unfortunately, people are usually judged by things that they themselves didn't intend to happen in the first place. It was a 'spur of the moment' thing. Why did she decide to follow her admittedly irresponsible friend onto a train that was headed out of state? And for a small, frivolous summer video production project. How was she supposed to find an answer to that? She just did it. She was pretty sure that was the same answer she was going to get out of London when she asked why she decided to get onto the train in the first place. Maybe they were both just tired of being at the right place at the right time.

She had a nice three story with her mum in a small, safe neighborhood in a small, safe town in the, dare she say, richest state in America. Every week day, she went to her town's blue ribbon public middle school on a yellow bus. The classes were boring, save for the abnormal interruption in her schedule, but she had a lot of friends that made up for that, London being just one of them. She had good grades, always falling in the A or B+ range. Pretty much everything a 13 year old could want. Except a dog. She wanted a dog, but her mum wouldn't hear any of it.

When the two girls had boarded the train it was very crowded. They were forced to stand in the isle, clinging to a metal pole to stop themselves from falling onto the people they were wedged between every time the train stopped and started. The metal poles absorbed the heat of the hot summer sun that shone through the windows. Piper used the sleeves of her red hoodie to grip the pole, not wanting to get burnt by the blisteringly hot metal. There was no plan- but both girls silently came to the conclusion that they would ride the train until the last stop, get off and shoot some practical footage, then catch a taxi home. What they didn't think about, however, was the slight possibility that they would both get a seat after the second stop, and fall asleep.

Unfortunately, that is exactly what happened.

Piper awoke to the pitter patter of rain hitting the train windows. She lifted her head off her shoulder, easing out the cricks in her neck and uncurling her fingers. The train car was dark, the only source of light was the low glow of the fluorescent lights that were strung up on the ceiling. After squinting her eyes and looking around, Piper came to the conclusion that besides her and London (who was still asleep) the train car was completely empty. The blue plastic benches that were once cram packed full of people were now devoid of any human life. The once hot to the touch metal poles were a stinging cold, and the seats weren't that much better. The sun that had shone through the windows had disappeared, instead replaced with a moonless night sky filled to the brim with dark clouds and rain. Her jaw clamped shut, Piper looked to her right. London was still sleeping, her head leaning against the window. Piper hesitantly poked her on the shoulder, and, receiving no sign that London was awake, flicked the older girl in the head. She awoke with a start, her head snapping forward. Her blue eyes took a while to adjust to the now very dim train car.

"What?" She asked.

"We fell asleep," Piper explained, shivering from the chilled state of the train car. Her thin red hoodie wasn't doing much for her now, she had after all, dressed for summer. "We should probably-" CRASH

Piper was cut off by a horrible scraping noise as the train came to an abrupt screeching halt. Lurching forward in her seat, she grasped a hold of the arm rest to steady herself, the inertia of the train pulling her forward.

"What. Was. That," London said, her eyes wide and breathing heavily, holding her arm in front of her red and black backpack to keep it from falling off the seat next to her. Piper shook her head, curious as to why the train had emergency stopped, but simultaneously not wanting to know. Being alone left her on edge. Where were they anyway? Loud footsteps coming from the next train car over interrupted her thoughts.

"Wha-" Piper's question was cut off when London lifted a shaking finger to her lips, signalling to be quiet. Piper gritted her teeth together. London pointed to herself and Piper, then directed her finger to the space in between the seats and the floor in corner of the train car. Piper nodded. There was probably no reason to hide, and they would end up looking like idiots, but better safe than sorry, right?

Accompanied by the accelerating rush of adrenaline, it took both girls a matter of seconds to situate themselves under the rather low plastic bench in the far corner of the train. It was too late to move when they realized they had both left their backpacks in plain sight. They both jumped when the train car door suddenly swung open, hitting the wall with a solid thwack. The sound of rain, thunder, and the clicking of the tracks were immediately silenced when the door was quickly slammed shut again. From where they were crouching, Piper and London could only see up to the knees of the three men that had walked into the 'empty' train car. Two of the men lumbered in with a heavy step, the ends of their jeans torn and caked with mud. The third man was wearing a battered pair of brown dress shoes and dark purple slacks. When he stepped forward the hem of his trousers lifted slightly revealing very colorful argyle socks. These were definitely not train attendees.

"Now, uh… What's your name again?" Piper assumed it was the man wearing purple trousers speaking.

"It's- it's Dan," One of the men wearing normal trousers visibly stuttered, his legs stiffened until his knees weren't bent at all.

"Ohhh, right, Danni, what did I tell you about being observant- ah?" Purple Trousers said, his voice jumping from low to high octaves, like he couldn't decide how he liked his voice better.

"That it's- it's… Good?" The man answered, obviously confused and unable to answer the simple question.

"Oh, Danni, don't you ever listen- ah? I said," Purple Trousers paused, clearing his throat and tapping his shoe on the ground vigorously. "I told you to, uh, make sure car five was empty, right?"

"Y-yeah,"

"And what car are we, uh, currently, in?"

"Uh… Five, yeah, number five,"

"Good, what did I say about car five again?"

"You said to make sure no one's in it?"

"BINGO! Congratulations, Danni, you've won the big prize!" Purple Trousers shouted, his booming voice shaking the cart. "But," His voice immediately became serious, his laughing stopped. "These," Piper saw two purple gloved hands reach down and lift up their heavy bags without so much as a strain. "Don't look like nothing to me- ah," Piper and London held their breaths- he had noticed their bags.

"Boss, they might've been left by the people we got out earlier," One of the men said desperately. What? Piper strained her neck to hear their words. If they got everyone out of the cart from earlier, why didn't they move them?

"I. Don't. Care," Purple Trousers growled, his voice alternating to an almost animalistic gnarl. "Just look through 'em, make sure there's no surprises or anything,"

"Yeah boss," The two men took the bags from Purple Trousers and started sifting through the girl's things. Piper held her breath. Please don't take anything. The men discovered nothing but spare jackets, phone chargers, one or two books, some cash, (which they pocketed, damn them) a camcorder (for the video production project) and a few snacks. Piper had to force herself not to breath a sigh of relief and alert them of her presence when she remembered her phone was in her hoodie pocket and not in her bag. She regrets to admit that her life was on that phone.

"Don't eat that now!" Purple Trousers had growled and slapped the granola bar out of one of the man's hands when he tried to take a bite out of it. Ha. Serves him right.

After a few minutes, the men finished invading Piper and London's privacy and dumped the bags back on the floor. They winced when the camcorder hit the ground at an angle. London cast a sideways glance at Piper, who was glaring angrily at them. "So, ahem, hehehehe," The man giggled and balanced on his heels for a few moments excitedly. Piper glanced at London. London shrugged. "Are the, uh, bombs, ready?" Purple Trousers asked happily.

Wait…

WHAT?!

BOMBS?!

"Yeah boss, as soon as you hit the button, this train'll be history,"

"Perfect- ah,"

"We should… Probably get off before you press the button, though, y'know, so we're not… yeah…" That man trailed off, and Piper could only assume Purple Trousers was glaring at him.

"I'm not an idiot, Danni," He turned, much to Piper and London's horror, towards them. "Unlike, some people," Before she knew it, Piper was pulled out from under the bench by her ankle. She looked over at London frantically, only to see she had also been discovered. Piper looked up at the man that had discovered them -Purple Trousers- only then she wish she hadn't. His hair was a dirty green and his face was covered in garish face paint, his eyes ringed in black, making his already dark brown eyes seem darker. He had scars on either side of his mouth, giving him a permanent smile. The already prominent scars were traced up the sides of his face with… red lipstick? The other men weren't much worse, both wearing terrifying clown masks. Piper hated clowns.

"You look nervous, is it the scars?" The man grinned, revealing stained teeth. He pulled a knife that resembled a potato peeler out of his purple trench coat pocket and held to Piper's face. "Wanna know how I got 'em?"

"Oh shit," Piper heard London whisper.